Health. Optimists are similar, but pessimists are unique, study finds

In the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) on July 21, a team from Kobe University in Japan led by psychologist Kuniaki Yanagisawa reports that optimists exhibit similar brain activity patterns when thinking about future events.

Conversely, those of the pessimists would turn out to be much more varied.

Drawing inspiration from the famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the authors summarize their findings: "Optimists are all alike, but each less optimistic individual imagines the future in his or her own way."

What unites optimists?

According to several previous studies, optimists generally report being more satisfied with their social relationships and have larger networks.

Kuniaki Yanagisawa and an interdisciplinary team combining social psychology and cognitive neuroscience asked the question: "But where does this come from? Recent work has shown that people occupying a central position in a social network react similarly to certain stimuli. It is therefore possible that those who share the same attitude towards the future also have a common cerebral representation of it, which would facilitate their mutual understanding."

Different brain activity on fMRI

To test this hypothesis, the researchers recruited 87 participants spanning the spectrum from pessimism to optimism (screened using scientifically validated tests and interviews).

They asked them to imagine various future events, while recording their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

This technique allows for live visualization of neural activity patterns associated with thinking about the future. The team observed that optimists exhibit similar brain patterns when considering future events, while pessimists' brain patterns are significantly more diverse.

According to Yanagisawa, "what is most striking about this study is that the abstract idea of 'thinking alike' could be made visible through patterns of brain activity."

The team also showed that the distinction between positive and negative events is more marked, on a neural level, in optimists than in pessimists.

"In other words, optimistic people clearly perceive the difference between a favorable and an unfavorable future. They do not seek to reclassify negative scenarios in a positive way, but treat them in a more abstract and detached way, which reduces their emotional impact," explains Yanagisawa.

Optimists on the same wavelength… cerebral

Thus, for the psychologist, "the feeling of being on the same wavelength is not just a metaphor. The brains of optimists could, literally, share a common representation of the future."

But is this shared mechanism innate or does it develop over time, through experience or dialogue? This is the next step this research team is taking.

Source: Optimists are alike, every pessimist has their own way Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 07/21/25